Xero In: Why it’s important to quit, fail and make mistakes

Xero In: Why it’s important to quit, fail and make mistakes

“It wasn’t my intention to launch a startup, or to do something on my own. Something happened to me, and it wasn’t life changing – but it was so exciting. It led to me thinking that to follow this, I’d have to step outside my corporate role.”

In today’s episode of Xero In, co-hosts Jeanne-Vida Douglas and Rob Stone talk to a selection of entrepreneurs from fintech hub Stone and Chalk. Hear them talk about taking a great idea through to a budding business – and how to deal with setbacks along the way.

One thing many entrepreneurs are all too familiar with is getting advice every which way they turn.

“Once you start allowing people into your idea, or you start discussing what it is that you are doing, you do get a lot of advice,” says Jack Stevens, CEO and founder at Edstart.

“The challenge, and I think this is absolutely across the board for all entrepreneurs, is trying to then filter that out. The worst thing you can do to listen to no advice but the second worst thing is to listen to all advice,” he explains.

Hamish Ogilvy, CEO at Sajari has experienced failure firsthand – and he believes it can be valuable. After all, making mistakes is one of the best ways to learn.

“It’s a pretty interesting story that when I was going through my PhD I did some research that the university thought was worth commercializing. They actually spun out into a start-up.

“That start-up went on to fail, which was an interesting experience for me but it probably got me going in terms of being an entrepreneur,” he explains.